BASEBALL | In first place, baseball team looks to build

The Yale baseball team (20–13, 8–4 Ivy) will hope to build on its four-game sweep of Dartmouth last weekend in back-to-back doubleheaders against Harvard (7–29, 3–9) this Friday and Sunday in Cambridge.

The Bulldogs moved into first place in the Red Rolfe Division with the wins last week over the Big Green and now control their own destiny for the league championship playoff spot.

“We need to treat Harvard the same way we treated Dartmouth,” captain and third baseman Andy Megee ’11 said. “They have solid pitching. This is a team we should beat though.”

This year, the Crimson have struggled in conference play with a 3–9 Ivy record. Harvard started the season 1–14, but it has played stronger in recent weeks and will come into this weekend’s play having won three of its last five games.

“They’ve had some injuries they have had to fight through, but have gotten those guys back and are starting to play better,” pitcher Brook Hart ’11 said.

Harvard freshman Jack Colton has had a strong comeback since his back injury earlier in the season. He has a .395 batting average and was recently named Ivy League Rookie of the Week.

But other than Colton, no other player on the Crimson roster has a .300 batting average or better.

Max Perlman leads the Crimson pitching staff with a 2.03 ERA through 44.1 innings. Overall, the team is sixth in the Ivy League with a 6.29 ERA.

When Yale and Harvard met last year, the teams split the series, with Yale winning the second and fourth contests.

In the second game, hurler Vinny Lally ’11 worked seven innings and struck out six batters in the process. Infielder Trey Rallis ’11 sparked the Yale offense with a dominant three-run, two-RBI evening. Both of these players have been key in this year’s success as well. Lally has a 2.26 ERA through 55.2 innings worked. Rallis is having another big year and has a .333 batting average and three home runs this season.

“We need to keep throwing a lot of strikes and let our fielders work for us,” Hart said.

The first doubleheader begins at Harvard on Friday, while the second double header will be on Sunday.